Kamurocho is the place to go to see every one of your desires fulfilled. Whether it be eating, drinking, sex, or even gambling, Kamurocho has it all and then some. A glamorous site admired as “the city that never sleeps,” East Japan’s greatest yakuza organization, the Tojo Clan, wages turf wars here every day.

Soutenbori, on the other hand, is a uniquely Kansai-esque city with an electric atmosphere, and home to the region’s greatest yakuza organization, the Omi Alliance.

Both cities hide a dangerous face beneath their sparkling facades.

Kazuma Kiryu and Majima Goro

The protagonists of Yakuza 0.

Kazuma Kiryu - 20-years-old. East Japan’s greatest yakuza organization, the Tojo Clan. Kiryu is a gangster belonging to the Dojima Family, which is under the direct command of the main Tojo Clan itself. He lost his parents at an early age, and was brought up at the Sunflower Orphanage founded by Dojima Family lieutenant Shintaro Kazama. After growing up, he followed in Kazama’s footsteps and joined the Dojima Family himself. Already widely known for being among the strongest fighters within the Tojo Clan, he operates predominantly within Kamurocho as his headquarters. However, on one fateful day in December 1988, Kiryu finds himself accused of extracting money from a back alley murder victim, putting his organization in a state of crisis. What’s worse, Kazama, the man Kiryu owes his life, too, gets caught in the crossfire. In order to protect him, Kiryu has decided to leave the Dojima Family, but…

Majima Goro - 24-years-old. Manager of the cabaret club “Grand” in Soutenbori, Osaka. You wouldn’t think he is sincere, but contrary to his appearance, he is bold, yet polite. The “King of the Night,” he managed to turn Grand into the most popular club in Soutenbori in the blink of an eye amidst cutthroat competition. However, his true identity is that of an ousted former yakuza. Several years ago, he was working in Tokyo under the Tojo Clan, but during a certain raid, went against the will of the organization, facing imprisonment as a result. Afterwards, he was sent to Osaka under the supervision of Kansai’s greatest yakuza organization, the Omi Alliance, allowed to stay alive as a normal citizen. But for his close friend and sworn brother, Majima dreams of returning to the family. One day, as the condition for his return, he is ordered to kill a person, but…

A release date for Yakuza 0 has not been announced. Development is currently 65 percent complete.

Yeah. I was thinking that too. I guess they wanted to make him look a bit more brooding to go with his “I’m an aimless Yakuza ne’er do well” image for this game.

Marco Tinè

They could get to a younger look just removing some of the wrinkles under Kazuma’s eyes and between the eyebrows. Everything would be fixed that way.

Budgiecat

He really shouldn’t look that hardened and brooding; its not like he’s lived a hard life yet or went to prison for 10 years

Articuno76

At this point in life he’s sort of aimeless, a dog of it’s leash. At least that’s my impression based on Famitsu Weekly’s story overview:

“In one corner of Kamurcho there’s a young man who’s not yet entirely black or white. Prone to half-assing things, he’s a Tojo Clan, Dojima Family member; Kiryuu Kazama (20 years old). He’s more than competent but not particularly likeable. Added to that, he doesn’t even have the smarts to trick people; problematic because he lives in the underworld where the power of money and violence are a necessity, a world which he isn’t capable of skilfully navigating.

And yet this Kiryuu Kazama goes about eking out his living, conducting his “part time job” of reclaiming loan payments in shadowy alleyways. He doesn’t even know what he wants. He has no dreams. He’s just a young yakuza left stumbling around aimlessly in life by the wave of greed that’s a sign of the times*. This is the man known as Kiryuu Kazama… or it was until one evening when a certain event occurred: A murder case.”

This guy is 29 years old but look 9 years younger than 20 years old’s Kazuma Kiryu lol

DarthBrian

If this is an origin game perhaps SEGA might give this one to us. >_>

罪罰

Eh maybe, or maybe not.

kurosan9712

Same logic for sequels, nope? So where’s your 5?

At least I have mine.

xMCXx

Man, you really like to rub it in.

kurosan9712

Just pointing out that the logic about it being able to come to you JUST because it’s a prequel is flawed. Really.

Aiddon

y’know, I suddenly realized that Kazuma looks like Tommy from Power Rangers with short hair

PrinceHeir

Badass!!!

LemonsArentForever

my boy kiryu how i miss you and the journeys we had but your father lord sega keeps us from each other. i suppose we may never see each other again for i am a montague and you are a capulet and we can just never be.

I can see they at least tried to make Kazuma similar to his PS2 era model, but all in all I think he looks good (and DAT MAJIMA) Also really excited to see Yumi’s model, I bet she’ll look a lot like Haruka.
I’m already loving the environment from the background, it looks like it matches the era very well and I’m hyped to explore Tokyo in 1988!

Kobracon

Sweet! My only question so far is…will Kiryu be weaker or stronger than his older selves in the previous games? Coz he was practially a GOD by Yakuza 4 or 5. Here, hes prolly still training under Komaki and he definitely shouldn’t have all his moves but can’t have new cool ones either lest we run into the Metroid problem of “Where did all her powers from the last game go?”

Also super excited for a playable Majima that isn’t holding a shotgun!

Vyse Legendaire

Just soiled my panties a little bit.

Gintoki79

I don’t like Kiryu’s hair and his clothes…

LunarHaven

Bah, who cares, they abandoned us long ago, why should I care about their stuff if they don’t care about us? Screw em.

herrer

Unless they bring it to the West not interested

LunarHaven

Exactly, they didn’t give us fans a proper explanation when they just decided to leave us in the dust.

FitzpatrickPhillips

Low Sales and cost of localization.

Max Leo

If they also released digitally they could gain a bigger audience, also if they had released Yakuza 3 and 4 digitally maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.

Imagine if Yakuza 3 and 4 on PSN plus as a free game, it would have gained a lot of new fans for future games.

BlueCereal

He looks the same, just different hair.

Articuno76

I know there’s been no mention of retcon so far, but I was curious as to how much resistance people would have to retconning events?

Personally I’m all for it as I wouldn’t mind if Zero set events in play for a new story continuity (making it function as a reboot as well as a prequel, if that makes sense).